3 But MARK OR KNOW THIS: there will be terrible (FIERCE, same word as the Gaderene demoniacs, Matthew 8:28) times in the last days. 2 Timothy 3
Paul warns Timothy and us by the Holy Spirit that there will be FIERCE TIMES ahead, he doesn’t want believers to be caught unawares. Everyone will live through such times, but as believers we have God’s Spirit living in us and the angelic hosts around us. I have often heard believers say that they don’t know how unbelievers can live their lives today without God’s help. God expects us to walk through this life with Him, self- dependence is not meant to be the way that we as Christians live our lives.
3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33
The word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, while he was in confinement in the courtyard of the guard, before the fall of Jerusalem and exile of Judah.
6 ‘“Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. 7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. Jeremiah 33
There was a future promise of RESTORATION FOR JUDAH, God’s judgement was coming, it was inevitable, but it was not final.
Paul lists 18 corrupted character traits of humanity in the last days, in his second letter to Timothy and many of them are clearly visible in our times. The long list begins with two things men love and end with a third love of corrupted mankind;
2 People will be LOVERS OF THEMSELVES, LOVERS OF MONEY, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, LOVERS OF PLEASURE rather than lovers of God … 2 Timothy 3
Three things which will capture our hearts and draw us away from the LOVE OF GOD, if we allow our hearts to be seduced. Paul points out that we should be LOVERS OF GOD, that’s where the loyalty of our hearts should always lie.
2 AFTER TWO DAYS HE WILL REVIVE US;
ON THE THIRD DAY HE WILL RESTORE US (HALLELUJAH),
THAT WE MAY LIVE IN HIS PRESENCE.
3 Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains (Rain of His Spirit),
like the spring rains that water the earth.’ Hosea 6
Prophetic voices today are proclaiming that the ‘Two Days’ spoken of by Hosea are the two thousand years since the coming of Christ. We have now entered the third millennium, the time for the Lord’s Restoration of His people, just as the prophesied Return and Rebuilding of Judah by Jeremiah. The Restoration of Jerusalem and Judah took time and effort and even the confrontation of enemies by Nehemiah and others. They faced opposition, but God had ordained their Restoration and it came to pass. Surely God will do the same in our day, only in a much greater dimension.
Immanuel, Stay Strong, the Lord is with us.